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Where Are the1970s and 1980s’ Rights Advocates? Anyone that were privileged and opportune to have visited and resided in Liberia between the 1970s and 1980s might clearly and vividly remember that between the 1970s and 1980s, Liberians were vehemently and vigorously taught and reminded about their civil and political rights, and their economic, social and cultural rights daily. During these years, students of the University of Liberia and Cuttington University College, junior and senior high school students, labor union, farm workers association, the Liberian Marketing Association, taxis and trucks drivers union, doctors and nurses association, the Liberian National Teachers Union and poor and despised Liberians were insistently and uncompromisingly taught their rights and responsibility in Liberia during the 1970s and 1980s. Also during these years, Liberians were advised and encouraged to fearlessly and forthrightly standup for their rights and demand that their human rights and human dignity be promoted and protected from being abused or violated by the existing governments. During the 1970s and 1980s, rights advocates and their followers boldly and confidently pronounced and proclaimed that there must be equal rights and equal treatment for all Liberians in Liberia, at all levels of the Liberian society, and throughout the Republic of Liberia. Equal rights and equal treatment for all Liberians, according to the 1970s and 1980s’ rights advocates and their followers, were divine, god-giving, and representative of all mankind’s inalienable rights provided for by divine intervention and divine hands. Therefore, these rights could not be denied nor taken away by fallible and feeble human beings. These, were the strong and impatient voices of rights advocates and their followers during the 1970s and 1980s era. The 1970s and 1980s, were all about,” in the cause of the people, the struggle continues; and the rights for rice campaign”. Liberians, irrespective of their gender, race, tribe, age, religion, and economic status, came together and demonstrated to have these rights upheld and protected by the William R. Tolbert, Samuel K. Doe, and Charles G. Taylor’s governments. Doctors Amos C. Sawyers, Togba-Nah Tipoteh, Henry Boimah Fambulleh, Patrick L.M. Sayon, Mr. Dew Tuan-Wleh Mason, the late Gabriel Baucus Mathews, and their disciples, both young and old, cultivated the equal justice and equal treatment pathway and led the struggle for social change and equal rights in Liberia. The 1970s and 1980s’ rights advocates persistently and unremittingly taught about due process of law, the respect for human rights, the rule of law, and representative and responsive democracy in Liberia. Thus, the 1970s and 1980s era caused many Liberian intellectuals and their followers to research and redefine themselves and their identities. Some of those intellectuals and their followers even entirely changed and renamed themselves. Also during this period, many Liberians renamed themselves by totally dropping and putting away their African-American or Americo-Liberian names. The 1970s and 1980s’ rights advocates and their followers ruthlessly and uncompromisingly redefined and identified corruption, misappropriation of public funds, fraud, and waste in government as prime enemy of Liberia, and they fought against their sustainability and survivor in Liberia. Also, the rights advocates of the 1970s and 1980s stood up and firmly against the
governments of Presidents William R. Tolbert, Samuel K. Doe, and Charles G. Taylor until those governments crumbled and were destroyed in 1980, 1990, and 2003. This, represents how resourceful and powerful were the voices and teachings of the rights advocates and their followers of the 1970s and 1980s. According to these Liberian intellectuals and their followers, this was a just and honest struggle in the cause of the people of Liberia, and it was intended to redeem and protect the people of Liberia from total abuse and waste. This call for equal justice and equal rights inspired many Liberians so much so that they listened, and followed the 1970s and 1980s’ intellectuals and their followers hoping to recover and reclaim equal justice and equal treatment in Liberia. But Life, starting from 1989 up to current, has not remained and really being so favorable to many of the rights advocates of the 1970s and 1980s. During this period, most of the 1970s and 1980s’ rights advocates and their followers were either accused of intentionally committing violations of international human rights law, serious violations of international humanitarian law, violations of the laws of war, and gross economic and other crimes to include corruption and waste in Liberia. This was a visible sin that rights advocates and their followers were totally against between the 1970s and 1980s. According to many of the 1970s and 1980s’ rights advocates and their followers, the struggle that was proclaimed and pronounced in the 1970s and 1980s to be in the cause of the people of Liberia, no longer existed, and has in fact changed. So, many of the rights advocates and their followers of the 1970s and 1980 have re-identified, redefined, and renamed the 1970s and 1980s’ struggle. Today and according to many of them, the struggle is currently known and referred to in Liberia, as, “in the cause of me and my family, and our ability to become wealthy overnight, the struggle continues”. To ordinary Liberians, the 1970s and 1980s’ rights advocates and their followers have totally betrayed and abandoned the struggle for social justice and social change in the Republic of Liberia. What a sad and an unfortunate state of affairs. Many Liberians, under false pretense, were misled by the 1970s and 1980s’ rights advocates and their followers. Today, not many Liberians trust them and their followers to ensure social justice and social change in Liberia. So, where are the 1970s and 1980s’ rights advocates? Shamelessly and entirely, out of self-centeredness and self-concentrated thirst for money and prestige, many of the founders and fathers of the 1970s and 1980s’ rights advocates revolution or advocates for equal rights and equal treatment in Liberia, have become absolutely voiceless and soundless indefinitely. Growing out of this self-concentrated and self-centeredness, the rights advocates and their followers of the 1970s and 1980s or the fathers for rights for rice campaign have completely and intentionally become mute while the regimes that they have worked for and are working for today in Liberia, continue to abuse and violate the economic, social and cultural rights of the people of Liberia. Some of these rights advocates and their followers of the 1970s and 1980s, If Liberians were to search for and wanted to find many of them, these rights advocates and their followers, these sons and daughters of Liberia of the 1970s and 1980s, with strong voices for social justice and social change, would be most likely than not, found under the warm and protective blanket of perpetual corruption, fraud and waste in government in the Republic of Liberia. Today, many of the 1970s and 1980s’ rights advocates and their followers are identified and known perhaps as distinguished wartime criminals, gross violators of human rights and the rule of law, and they may be accredited with allegedly killing over 300, 000 Liberians and destroying much property in Liberia. Many of the 1970s and 1980s’ rights advocates and their followers have become incessantly corrupt three or more times, than the Tolbert, Doe, Taylor, and the Bryant-led governments that they loudly preached against and consistently fought to topple in Liberia. What a heartless and an inherent contradiction and shame associated with those that claimed to have acted in the cause of the people of Liberia. And so, where are our 1970s and 1980s’ rights advocate today? To be forthright and truthful, many are today our war determined architects, war-financiers, war-planners, warlords, shameless violators of national and international law in Liberia; and sadly, many are waiting to stand trial before the specialized criminal court determined and recommended by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia for crimes they allegedly committed between1979 to 2003 in the Republic of Liberia. So many of the strong voices of the 1970s and 1980s’ rights advocates and their followers have reduced themselves to nothing but, alleged common criminals, disgraced warlords, and economic criminals in Liberia. Some of our so-called good and outstanding 1970s and 1980s’ rights advocates who proud themselves of not being warlords and economic criminals, today, despondently, these men and women of Liberia, though they might not have being professed warlords and economic criminals, as they claimed, nevertheless, many are today credited with having mixed themselves with regimes after regimes that have mistreated our people and are yet violating the rights and dignity of the people of Liberia. They are today amongst the rich people of Liberia, while the people that they claimed to have struggled for, have no safe drinking water, affordable healthcare, housing, farm-to-market roads, and affordable schools for the children of Liberia to attend and become educated. Actually, the 1970s and 1980s’ rights advocates and their followers are becoming richer-and-richer daily, while ordinary Liberians are becoming poorer-and-poorer day-by-day in Liberia. In which cause did these rights advocates fight? Can the 1970s and 1980s’ rights advocates and their followers be redefined and redeemed, and can they be returned to being actual 1970s and 1980s’ rights advocates and fearless fighters for the rule of law and human rights in Liberia? Actually, we do not think so. This is so because, their volume of ill-gotten riches, high government positions and privileges, and their influential status in the Liberian society, have totally seized possession of their rational thinking and their care and concern for fellow Liberians. And so, many of the 1970s and 1980s’ rights advocates and their followers are no longer looking back for the weak and looking out there no longer, for the interest of ordinary Liberians. At this stage, the Republic of Liberia needs new thinkers and campaigners to save Liberia and the people of Liberia from the hands of massive corruption, waste, fraud and abuse of power in government. Actually, Liberia needs a new direction. A constructive roadmap is indeed needed to lead us to peace, reconciliation and stability in the Republic of Liberia. It must be clearly remembered and represented here that Liberia still has promising sons and daughters that are fully willing and ready to take up the challenge to bring everlasting freedom and salvation to Liberians and the Republic of Liberia. Happy July 26, A.D. 2009 to all Liberians and friends of Liberia! Prepared and executed this 20th day of July, A.D. 2009, by: Counsellor Frederick A.B. Jayweh, B.A., LL.B. LL.M Counsellor James C.R. Flomo, B.Sc, LL.B.
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